May 2012

WASHINGTON (SE) : Words do have meaning, Robert Tyler, from the Advocates for Faith and Freedom, commented in describing the May 1 proclamation of the president of the United States of America (US), Barack Obama, in setting a National Day of Prayer for May 3.

He described it as constituting one more step in what seems to have become a gradual process of limiting the freedom of the practice of religion in the US....

HONG KONG (SE): The Justice and Peace Commission of Hong Kong diocese launched a website signature campaign addressed to the premier of China, Wen Jiabao, urging the government in Beijing to respect the civil rights of the sight impaired advocate for defenceless life, Chen Guangcheng, on May 1.

Chen escaped from house arrest on April 22 after a 19-month period of confinement. He was granted asylum in the embassy of...

The disciples were naturally skeptical about St. Paul, as they had known him as being an active persecutor of the tiny Christian community, and news of his sudden conversion was naturally doubted.

Since Easter, the theme of our Sunday liturgies has revolved around fear and doubt. We reflected on the doubting Thomas, yet he actually was not any different from the others, except that more was asked of him....

WASHINGTON (CNS): Religious liberty was the hot topic at the eighth annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, held on April 19 in Washington DC in the United States of America (US).

“Never in the lifetime of anyone present here, has the religious liberty of the American people been as threatened as it is today,” Carl Anderson, supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus, told the estimated 800...

VATICAN (SE): In its message this year to the Buddhist people of the world on their feast of Vesakh, or Hana Matsuri (Flower Festival) as it is called in Japan, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue speaks of the shared responsibility for the education of young people on the virtues of justice and peace, the importance of interreligious dialogue, and the great contribution that young people have to make to our world.

VATICAN CITY (SE): “Volunteer work is a great resource for Europe and part of the continent’s DNA,” Kristalina Georgieva, European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, said at a conference held at the Vatican last year on the importance of volunteer work in society.

On April 13 this year, a book documenting the most important contributions made at...

SAN FRANCISCO (CNS): A 1997 healing of a man in the Oakland area of California, the United States of America, from what was diagnosed as an incurable cancer, is being considered by the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints for the beatification of a German military chaplain from World War II, Father Franz Stock.

Father Stock worked with prisoners of the Nazi regime in Paris, France, and is remembered...